Preparing For The Sale

ARE YOU PREPARED TO SALE YOUR CONTACT CENTER?

If you were to call up potential buyers today, would you be able to tell them how much your business is worth (and back up your claims with hard financial data), or would you have to rely on them to tell you what they think your shop is worth, and go from there? Use the questionnaire below to evaluate whether or not you’re prepared to speak with parties in the market to buy a contact center.

Sale Preparation Checklist

Have I determined my priorities, identified hurdles, and taken into consideration the potential impact of:

valuation

negotiated price,

leases,

non-compete agreements

representations and warrants?

How to I market my business to:

national and international centers,

regional, privately-held centers,

private equity money,

my competitor in town, or

all of the above?

Have I determined the buyers motivations for buying my business?– Have I put on the buyers hat and taken into consideration:

competitor proximity,

available market share

strategic or consolidation buy

Have I benchmarked my contact center business against others in my area:

client list

program types

talent demographics

employee churn

program composition (IB, OB, B2B, B2C, sales or customer service)

Have I determined the amount of pipeline necessary to affect a successful transaction by:

projecting future revenue potential by client

performance based on benchmarks and best practices,

determining if demographics support growth model assumptions,

taking into consideration expense allocation and normalization,

educating myself on how buyers measure profitably and performance by asking the following:

Which expenses do buyers allocate at the center level?

Which expenses are non reoccurring?

Am I prepared to negotiate a sales price based on hard data gathered and analyzed prior to entering negotiations?

Have I developed a proper negotiation sequencing strategy that will ensure a successful transaction?

Are my financials in a position to satisfy a buyers’ due diligence?

Am I prepared to sign off on buyers representations and warrants?

LET’S NOT FORGET TWO IMPORTANT THINGS

1. You still have a business to run as you answer the questions above and complete corresponding action items.
2. You can’t rely on those who are in the market to buy a contact center to help you reach the selling price you truly deserve.